Simon Cowell's Red or Black? will only return if the gameshow's format is overhauled, ITV's chief programmer said in answer to a question to Jonathan Ross in front of an audience of advertisers.

Peter Fincham, ITV's director of television, said he had not even decided whether to recommission the show in an interview at the commercial broadcaster's star-studded "2012 upfronts" designed to showcase programming for the new year.

Ross was interviewing Fincham in a chatshow-style format – and decided that his first question would be about Red or Black?, which despite considerable hype received a mixed reception from audiences and industry observers alike when it was aired seven nights in a row in September.

Fincham said "I haven't made that decision yet" when asked by Ross whether Red or Black? will return next year. "It is a big show… the sort of thing ITV should be doing on a Saturday night. [It's a show I] want to make some changes to … I'm nearly there, but not quite ready yet."

The show attracted more than 4 million viewers a night on average, a solid performance under normal circumstances, but hardly the levels that ITV executives would have expected from a high-budget Cowell show fronted by its two biggest presenters, Anthony McPartlin and Declan Donnelly (Ant and Dec).

The format of Red or Black?, which gave contestants the chance to win £1m by guessing either red or black to the outcome of a series of celebrity-fronted challenges, has come in for some criticism. Claudia Rosencrantz, the former controller of entertainment at ITV, ordered a pilot of the same show eight years ago but canned it because she believed audiences wouldn't like a format requiring "no skill".

ITV's 2012 upfronts were held at London Television Centre on the South Bank, with comedian Keith Lemon, The Only Way is Essex star Mark Wright and X Factor judge Louis Walsh among those in attendance. The audience – Britain's major media buyers – were shown Julian Fellowes' upcoming Titantic and the new series of female detective programme Scott & Bailey and live performances from Pixie Lott and Rebecca Ferguson.

However, the audience levels of the show, less than half that of successful Cowell stablemates such as Britain's Got Talent and X Factor, arguably indicates that it needs to be rejigged if the broadcaster is to achieve ambitions of turning IT into a mega franchise it can sell overseas.

Cowell has previously said he wants to take the show, which is co-produced by his production company Syco and ITV Studios, "around the world".

It is thought that ITV is considering options for a new-look Red or Black? that include running it just one night a week.

"The feeling is it might come back as a big Saturday night show but it's a question of how you work that logistically and make it work if it's just once a week," said a source who worked on Red or Black?. "It's a big expensive show."

The series, which like other Cowell efforts was filmed in an arena, is thought to be one ITV's most expensive productions per episode.

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